User engagement on
NGO Facebook pages

Effects of post sentiment measures over time

Nils Gustafsson & Nils Holmberg

Reserach questions

RQ1: How do Swedish nonprofits’ use of emotional expressions on Facebook change over time?
RQ2: What are the effects of emotional expressions on user engagement in Facebook posts from Swedish nonprofits?

ca 70 000 posts
from 125 pages (e.g. WHO)
time period of 2014-2019
downloaded using CrowdTangle

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Sentiment measures

ca 70 000 posts from 125 organizational pages
time period of 2014-2019
text pre-processing, emojis converted to text descriptions
sentiment analysis on all text content

date of posting
number of followers
post language

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Sentiment dictionary

content coded for sentiment using the AFINN dictionary
better results with machine learning ?
quantitative content analysis vs computational

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Sentiment analysis

content coded for sentiment using the AFINN dictionary
words and emojis assigned valence value of -5 to +5
valence indicate positive or negative sentiment (0 being neutral)
valence squared indicates intensity of sentiment

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Sentiment over time

relatera sina akademiska
tillämpa teorier inom
utveckla erfarenheter att

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Engagement and sentiment

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tillämpa teorier inom
utveckla erfarenheter att

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Effects on engagement

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utveckla erfarenheter att

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Variables by organization type

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Engagement, mean over time

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tillämpa teorier inom
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Engagement, trend over time

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tillämpa teorier inom
utveckla erfarenheter att

Engagement measures

engagement index, dependent variable

1. e_index_mean: per post e_index average per month (“raw engagement scores”)
1. e_index_mean_norm: normalized per organization values of e_index_mean (1. above)
1. e_index_norm_mean: per post e_index normalized per organization average per month
1. e_index_rel_mean: per post e_index relative to follower count average per month

Engagement trend by organization type

relatera sina akademiska
tillämpa teorier inom
utveckla erfarenheter att

Engagement measures by organization type

relatera sina akademiska
tillämpa teorier inom
utveckla erfarenheter att

Thanks!